After parting ways earlier this year with Hammarby, former U.S national team defender Gregg Berhalter has been hired as head coach of the Columbus Crew in MLS.

"Gregg Berhalter has been hired as the head coach and sporting director of the Columbus Crew following a club restructuring of its soccer operations," Crew spokesman Tim Miller told YA on Wednesday.

Berhalter, 40, retired as a player in 2011 after a brief tenure with the Los Angeles Galaxy. His playing career saw him play for teams in Germany, England Holland. He was an integral part of the U.S national team in 2002 which advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

In 2012 he was hired as head coach of Hammarby in Sweden's Suprettan but was fired earlier this year. At Columbus he will be the team's seventh ever coach.